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Nonoccupational physical activity and risk of ovarian cancer: a meta-analysis

  • Research Article
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Tumor Biology

Abstract

Previous studies concerning the association between nonoccupational physical activity (PA) and risk of ovarian cancer yielded mixed results. We investigated the association by performing a meta-analysis. Relevant studies were identified by searching PubMed and EMBASE to June 2014. We calculated the summary relative risks (RRs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) using random-effects models. The dose–response relationship was assessed by restricted cubic spline model and multivariate random-effect meta-regression. Nine cohort studies and ten case–control studies involving 730,703 participants and 9,459 cases of ovarian cancer were selected for meta-analysis. The analyses showed that individuals who participated in any amount of nonoccupational PA had a RR of 0.92 (95 % CI = 0.84–1.00) for risk of ovarian cancer. Those who participated in high or moderate nonoccupational PA had a RR of ovarian cancer risk of 0.89 (95 % CI = 0.79–1.01) and 0.91 (95 % CI = 0.85–0.99), respectively. Stratifying by study design and cancer subtype (borderline and invasive tumors), inverse association was only found in case–control studies. A linear but not significant dose–response relationship was found between nonoccupational PA and ovarian cancer risk. In conclusion, a weak inverse association exists between nonoccupational PA and the risk of ovarian cancer. Regarding the significant heterogeneity among included studies, confirmation in further prospective cohort studies with more accurate assessment of PA level is essential.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81272470).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center of Clinical Laboratory Science, Jiangsu Cancer Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Baiziting 42, Nanjing, 210009, China

    Shanliang Zhong, Tengfei Ma, Xiaohui Zhang & Jianhua Zhao

  2. Departments of Oncology, Xuzhou Medical College, Xuzhou, 221004, China

    Lin Chen

  3. The Fourth Clinical College, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210009, China

    Mengmeng Lv

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  1. Shanliang Zhong
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Correspondence to Jianhua Zhao.

Electronic supplementary material

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Table S1

Methodological quality of the case-control studies, based on the NOS for assessing the quality of epidemiological studies. (XLS 26 kb)

Table S2

Methodological quality of the cohort studies, based on the NOS for assessing the quality of epidemiological studies. (XLS 20 kb)

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Zhong, S., Chen, L., Lv, M. et al. Nonoccupational physical activity and risk of ovarian cancer: a meta-analysis. Tumor Biol. 35, 11065–11073 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-014-2385-z

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